Acehnese Authorities Publicly Whip 32 Men for Gambling

MEULABOH, Indonesia – Some 32 men in Aceh were publicly whipped on Friday as punishment for gambling, a violation of Islamic Sharia law as practiced in Indonesia’s semi-autonomous province of Aceh on Sumatra Island.

Black-masked punishers, locally known as algojo, lashed the men’s backs in front of a crowd of onlookers at Baitul Makmur Mosque at Meulaboh, the capital city of West Aceh Regency, according to witnesses.

Aceh – the only province in Indonesia which implements Islamic Sharia law – has over the past decade increasingly cracked down on “un-Islamic” practices, with whipping being one of many corporal punishments for violating laws including the public dress code or meetings between unmarried individuals, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW) in Indonesia.

In 2010, a university student was apprehended for being on an isolated road with her boyfriend and taken into police custody.

“A Sharia police officer ... told my mom and me that I should be buried and stoned to death. I said, ‘Sir, I was only trying to look for a shortcut, and I should be stoned for that? What about the officers who raped me last night?’” said Nita, 20, explaining that she had been sexually abused by authorities while in detention, as quoted by HRW.

Aceh introduced Sharia Law after it was granted autonomy from the rest of Indonesia in 2005, as part of a deal to end the separatist insurgency that had wracked the northwestern tip of the archipelago since 1976.